Tesco retailer to offer same day grocery delivery across the UK

Tesco has become the first retailer to offer same day grocery delivery across the UK, ahead of a planned challenge from Amazon.

Britain’s biggest grocer launched the service in London and the South-east three years ago, but is now extending it across 300 stores covering 99pc of UK households.

Amazon – which showed the extent of its food retail ambitions with the $13.7bn (£10.5bn) takeover of Whole Foods last month – has plans to roll-out a same day British version of AmazonFresh nationwide in the future. It already offers the service in parts of London.

Meanwhile Sainsbury’s offers same day delivery from 30 stores.

Tesco said its same day service would stretch from the Shetland Islands in Scotland to Cornwall, with the roll-out to be completed by the end of next month.

Customers will be able to order by 1pm to have their shopping delivered from 7pm onwards. The service is priced at between £3 and £9 but is being offered free for a limited period for members of its delivery saver service.

It will be available seven days a week in London and the south-east and Monday to Saturday in the rest of the UK.

Tesco said it had experienced an 18pc growth in demand for its existing same day delivery service so far this year.

It extended its same day ‘Click+Collect’ service to 300 stores across the UK earlier this year and last month launched ‘Tesco Now’ in central London, offering deliveries within an hour.

Adrian Letts, managing director of Tesco Online, said: “Customers tell us they like getting their shopping delivered quickly and conveniently, and with our same day delivery service they can now order by lunch to get their shopping delivered for their evening meal.”